Black Friday Tip #3: Use an Online Shopping Portal!

This post may contain affiliate links from our advertising partners, such as American Express. Read my Advertiser Disclosure policy here. Additionally, some of the offers on this page may no longer be available through Deals We Like.

With Black Friday right around the corner, it is important to maximize the number of points/miles or cash back earned on every single purchase. For every single purchase you make online, you should AWLAYS go through an online shopping portal first. This will ensure you get an even better deal on your upcoming purchase!

What is an Online Shopping Portal?

For those not familiar with an online shopping portal, it essentially gives you a kick back in the form of points/miles or cash back on every single you purchase online. Payouts change daily and every portal has their own offers. You start at the online shopping site first, search for your online merchant, and you’ll then be taken directly to that merchants online website. At that point, you’ll shop how you normally would as if you went to the merchants site to begin with. It takes an extra minute and allows you to earn points or miles on the way — it is a no brainer! For example, let’s say you are looking to shop at the Gap and there is a payout of 5x American Airline miles per dollar spent. A $100 purchase will earn you an additional 500 American Airline miles for simply making a purchase you were going to make anyways!

To find the best payout, I always suggest starting at evrewards.com or cashbackmonitor.com. These are two different aggregators that will show you the best payout for a certain merchant. Unfortunately though, payouts are not always 100% accurate and not at shopping portals will show up in the search, but it is a good place to start.

Best Shopping Portals

There are three different types of payouts you can earn with your online purchases — cash back, airline miles, credit card points. While sometimes the value of the miles or points earned is worth more than cash back, cash is king and can sometimes bring your purchase price down immediately.

Cash Back Shopping Sites

All the sites have different thresholds on a payout minimum and how often you get paid. I personally love TopCashBack solely since there are no minimums and you can request a to get paid at any point. Ebates, for example, will only pay once a quarter and you must have earned at least $5.01 (or it will be rolled into the next quarters check). Many of the sites also will give you a new members sign up bonus, so you might as well take advantage of those sites first and snag your extra cash!

Earn Cash Back

Overall…

Make sure to not leave some extra points/miles or cash back on the table! Going through a portal literally takes an extra minute or two so there is no reason not to maximize your earnings!

The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.

More From Deals We Like

Comments

I am new at use shopping portals. I can usually find hotels, rentals cars, drugstore items cheaper by using coupons/sales at other sites than on the shopping portal. I am able to use Chase and Southwest. Is is correct that you can’t use any coupon discount that is not on the site itself after you link from the portal to the shopping site?

More Information

About Jen

My passion (and obsession!) for travel deals and points started over nine years ago the day I graduated college and took a job in management consulting. I’d spend every Monday through Thursday hotel hoping and embarking on long plane rides just to earn the extra points and miles. Since I was traveling all the time I decided that I was really going to take advantage of the points and miles game... Learn more about Jen »

Advertiser Disclosure:
The card offers that appear on this site are from companies from which Deals We Like receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site (including, for example, the order in which they appear). Deals We Like does not include all card companies or all card offers available in the marketplace.

Editorial Note: The editorial content on this page is not provided by any bank, credit card issuer, airlines or hotel chain, and has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities. Opinions expressed here are author's alone, not those of the bank, credit card issuer, airlines or hotel chain, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.

Responses in the comments section are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and or questions are answered.